For performing conformance tests, the abstract specification (e.g., procedures and parameters) of the tests is usually provided in the TTCN format. These procedures and parameters specify how exactly the conformance tests are to be performed. Especially, the procedures and parameters specify which message responses are expected for the device under test to pass the conformance test. Since these abstract specifications in TTCN are used by different measuring devices, such as system simulators or protocol testers, from different measuring device manufacturers, they are not specific to a single measuring device. In order to generate test cases for a specific measuring device, the abstract TTCN instructions are compiled into runtime code, which is linked against the measuring device specific adaptor runtime code into an executable so that it could run on the target measuring device. The adapter maps the abstractly defined communication to real communication channels.
Based thereupon, the measuring device is set up and generates signaling, which is transmitted to the device under test. The device under test receives the signaling and answers with respective messages. These messages are received by the device under test and stored. So far, it is customary to store the signaling and the messages received from the device under test separately. Especially, it is customary to store the received messages in one large XML-file. In case of conformance tests involving a large number of measurement results, this one large XML-file is very difficult to process. Also, in case of very lengthy test procedures, storing the measurement results in the one large XML-file results in a very high risk of losing the measurement results in case of a system crash, as XML-files are usually stored at the end of the test case and not during test execution to avoid disk operations due to possible performance limitations of the system.
For example, the European Patents EP 1 472 819 B1 and EP 1 652 340 B1 shows a method for receiving and analyzing messages from a device under test. The document though does not show an efficient way of storing and sorting the according messages.
What is needed, therefore, are approaches for a measuring device and associated measuring methods that facilitate efficient storage and sorting of measurement results.